Andover achieved a resounding victory at the annual Choate-Andover cross country meet last Saturday on Choate’s course, claiming five of the seven fastest times despite several team members being sidelined by injury. Standout runner Arashi Hunter PG’25 (PG) led the way, winning the race and posting the seventh-fastest time ever recorded on the Choate course.
Sebastian Vermut ’27 shared that the team was dealing with multiple injuries, including one to their top runner, Tam Gavenas ’25. Despite this, Hunter delivered an outstanding performance, leading Boys Cross Country to a victory over Choate.
Vermut said, “Well, it was an interesting race because Tam, who was injured, sat out this race, and he’s usually our fastest runner, but Arashi, he ran a really great race. He’s got seventh on the leaderboard all-time at the Choate course. He ran a 16:04 or something similar to that, and he did really well.”
Hunter, a new postgraduate, attributed his success to the specialized workouts the team did the week prior. He explained that his workouts were new, and credited Coach Riley for introducing the challenging and effective training regimen that prepared him for the meet on Saturday.
“Going through the variety of workouts [Head] Coach [Patrick] Riley asked for was definitely very crucial. Being a PG, the workouts are very new to me, so it’s exciting to get to do these workouts in different places,” said Hunter.
Hunter expressed his appreciation for his teammates, thanking them for their warm welcome and for creating an exciting, friendly atmosphere. He credited the team’s supportive culture as a key factor in his success.
“Our strength is definitely the team culture. The team is very welcoming, and we all work together and collaborate well. The meet was a bit of a drive away, so there was excitement and nervousness as a team, but we did well nonetheless,” said Hunter.
Charlie Domina ’27, who ran his first competitive 5K at the Choate-Andover meet, also echoed his appreciation of the training regiment, mainly its focus on hills. Domina noted that Choate’s cross-country course is similar to the Andover course in that both have dramatic changes in elevation and steep hills.
Domina said, “One unique thing about the course that favored us was that it is similar to our home course. We were in similar elements. It was a crazy hill in the sun at one point, which I found very brutal. I was thankful for the hard hill workout we did during the week when I saw that big hill at the Choate course, and I bet others probably felt pretty similarly.”
Vermut expanded on the team’s resilience during the race, highlighting how several runners battled through the challenging Choate course, both mentally and physically, to finish with strong performances.
“I’ve been sick for a little while, but when I got to the race, I just told myself, just push, my heart rate can recover, and I’ll make it down fine. And then that’s what I did. And I didn’t perform as well as I would like to, but that’s just because I was sick,” said Vermut.
This Friday, Andover Boys Cross Country has its highly anticipated first home race of the season against St. Paul’s.
